A Little Sacrifice for the Children’s Sake

When I became a mom over nine years ago, I had no idea what little sacrifices I would make for my children.

There is one particular child-friendly restaurant that my husband and I seek to avoid. For one thing, it’s buffet-style, which always leads to my eating more than I should. When our meal is over, I always feel stuffed and decidedly unhealthy.

Nevertheless, it’s one of our daughters’ favorite places to eat. The idea of choosing their own food and (mostly) the fact that free dessert is included causes them to request it often. In a burst of seasonal goodwill, my husband took them there for lunch while the three of them were out shopping for my Christmas presents. I, much more fortunately, have been able to avoid the place for months.

However, just a couple of weeks ago there were coupons in the newspaper allowing you to purchase an adult buffet and get a child’s buffet for free. My coupon-sharing friend gave me her coupon as well, meaning we can eat there pretty inexpensively. Even worse, one of our daughters saw the coupons lying on the kitchen counter.

I have reconciled myself to my fate. I will graciously accompany the rest of the family to the restaurant and absorb their pleasure in the occasion while attempting to limit my own food intake. Now I must check the expiration date on the coupon lest time slip by and we miss our opportunity…..

Is there a particular restaurant you visit only because your child enjoys it? How about other leisure activities that you participate in just for the sake of your child? Tell me about it in the comments.

There is one… you have to walk down a long pier at the beach to get there and I threw up once from food poisoning from there. It is cute but everytime I eat there, it takes me back to a not-so-happy memory. My girls love this place.. it's 50's themed too. Cute but come on, I barfed from there. Damage is done.

Friendly's!! I do like the food, but typically the service is awful and it turns into a night mare!! Good coupons are the only thing that make it worth it. I love how you state "little" scarifices – what about the HUGE, never ending list of BIG, enormous sacrifices – LOL!!!

McDonald's is mine. And, as you might imagine, it is horribly difficult to avoid. I do like the Diet Coke there. (lol) And the yogurt parfaits. But beyond that, it's one of those "sacrifice" places that you speak of here. On Sunday, in fact, I agreed to go there for our Valentine's lunch. And I survived. 😛

Oh yeah, Chuck E. Cheese. It's torcher for me. Madison LOVES the place. Thankfully, it's about 30 miles from where we live. She can spot it a hundred miles away though. McDonald's is getting better since I put my foot down to no playing on the indoor playground. I used to work at a McDonald's and I know how often the equipment is cleaned/sanitzed…almost never! And me being a germ-o-phobe doesn't help 🙂

Oh my, you must have the CiCi's pizza coupons too! We received the same coupons and the boys LOVE going! I used the coupons then someone gave us more right in front of the boys so they are excited we can go again! CiCi's here we come! The things we do for our kiddos.